BUILDING FREIGHTERS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 147, 27 August 1941, Page 5

BUILDING FREIGHTERS

AUSTRALIAN PROGRAMME

THE FIRST KEEL LAID

The keel of the first 9000-ton freighter under the new Australian merchant shipbuilding programme was laid in a Sydney dockyard recently by the Prime Minister, Mr Menzies. Under the programme CO such ships will be built in the next five years.

More than 50,000' men will be employed, and the merchant building scheme will run at the same time as the naval construction work already undertaken.

Wearing a riveter's glove, Mr Menzies laid the keel and drove the first two rivets with a pneumatic drill. Congratulating the Shipbuilding Board on the way in which the' merchant ship programme had been prepared, Mr Menzies said the board had not been constituted until March and yet the keel of the first standard ship had now been laid.

"Before many months are passed we shall see keels laid down in other parts of Australia, and the foundations of the merchant shipbuilding industry will be laid," he said. "The enemy has struck hard'at our merchant ships, not only in the Battle of the Atlantic, but all over the world. Wherever merchant ships can be built, they must be built.**

Turning to the workmen perched on vantage points around the slipway, Mr Menzies said: "You are en-« gaged in the true service of this country and of the Empire. By serving them you are mankind.**

He said he was certain that shipbuilding in Australia would grow by virtue of its own achievements* Each ship would train more men and he looked forward ,to an industry employing thousands of men m peace, as well as war.

meeting